Family--and God--comes first.

AuthorMartin, Ed
PositionLaw & Justice - Father Paul Scalia and Justice Antonin Scalia

"... I thanked God for making [Father Paul Scalia] a good son, a great friend, and a priest of God. I worry about how he will miss his dad more than how we will miss the [Supreme Court] Justice."

JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA and I stepped out of the SUV into a cool Cape Girardeau evening. It was May 2006 and we were the first people arriving for a dinner party. We were first because the Justice just had spoken at Southeast Missouri State and we had left ahead of the crowd that included the others attending the party.

We stood in front of the house for a minute or two and then Justice Scalia said with a smile, "We better knock or people will think we're loitering." We knocked ... and radio host Rush Limbaugh answered. Limbaugh and the Justice never had met, and Limbaugh was very excited. He expressed his pleasure at the meeting and then said: "I brought some great cigars with me, Justice, if you'd like one." Scalia replied, "No cigar for me, but Martin might want one."

Limbaugh offered; I accepted; and that is how I ended up on the back deck of a Cape Girardeau home smoking a cigar with Limbaugh while chatting with Justice Scalia. It was an epic night with more stories than I can retell in a short article. That evening came at the end of a full day with the Justice as he spoke with students, lawyers, and others at events in St. Louis and Cape Girardeau.

However, the Justice is not the Scalia I know best. You see, I went to college with Paul Scalia, one of Justice Scalia's sons. We were friendly in college but, later, as fate would have it, we ended up in the same city for a few years: Rome. I was a student at the Gregorian University and Paul was studying for the priesthood at the North American College. We reconnected over a long, rewarding meal. We became fast friends. Paul was in the seminary and was working hard: studying and praying and figuring out how to give his life to our Church. It was extraordinary to see--and inspiring.

We walked the streets of the Italian capital and talked of home as well as theology, politics, and whatever else friends talk about. My brother came to Rome on semester abroad and Paul and I took him under our wing. Our families are the center of our lives and Paul talked as much about his mother and eight siblings as his famous father. Paul loves his family and his call to the priesthood was a call not to have his own family in the way his mother and father had. I learned from Paul about loving God so much that you...

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